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ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A41395 Good and seasonable advice to the male-contents in England shewing that it is neither the duty, nor the interest of the people of England to re-call the late King. 1689 (1689) Wing G1035A; ESTC R2519 5,570 4

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subverted and trampled under foot when the King would Govern no longer as a King of England then sure his Government ceased when the Father of our Country became the greatest Enemy of it when our Governour was turned our destroyer when our Bulwarks were our batteries and our Canons which should have pointed at our Enemies were levelled at our selves when our King deserted us without any just fear or danger leaving us to the mercy of a disbanded though not not a disarmed Army and chose rather to go off the Stage than comply with Justice and to decide the quarrel by a Battle rather than a Parliament alienating his Kingdom and putting himself under the conduct of a Foreign Prince who is the greatest Enemy to our Church and Nation when he resigned his Power and withdrew both his Person and his Seals that we might have no Government when he went about to Enslave and Sell us were we not obliged to look to our own safety and preservation though it was by ways and methods inconsistent with his Authority Nay farther did not he himself submit to our present King by offering to him his Palace by going under his Guards and disbanding his Army But to this you 'l say his desertion was involuntary and he did design to come again But to this I answer That the Proposals of our present King were so fair the perswasions of the Popish party so importunate that his force was from himself and he withdrew himself voluntarily but if he did design to return was it that he might settle and provide for the Nations safety did he design to return without borrowed Forces from France to ruin our Properties and Laws and destroy the Reformed Established Religion But we shall be better satisfied if we consider the nature of our English Monarchy which is not boundless but limited for our Charter is not our Princes Sword nor his Will our Law. Our King is not absolute and this appears because the Legislative power is not lodged in his hands our Government being a mixture of Monarchy in the King Aristocracy in the Peers and Democracy in the Commons 'T is no new thing that the Nobles and Commons of England should remove Kings from the Government when necessary to prevent a general Ruin otherwise inevitable for tho we must render to Caesar the things that are Caesars I hope the constitution of our Country are to determine what the things of Caesar are But some will Object and say That if the Kings Zeal for his Religion was so great that it made him uncapable of Governing a Protestant Kingdom according to the Laws why might not he still have retained the Title of KING and the Prince of Orange have been Regent To this I Answer First That a King without Power cannot be much at his ease and his struggle for it must end in destroying the Regency or the Regent or else he must have been imprisoned which how ungrateful it would have been to his nature we may easily imagine besides the fatal consequence which might attend it a Princes Prison not being many steps from his Grave Secondly The setting up a Regent would be as direct a violation of the Oath of Allegiance as a submission to the present settlement for we are bound to maintain his Prerogative as well as his Title Having now shewed that it is not our Duty to recall the Late King I shall now go on to shew that it is not our interest and shall address my self to those who at present seem the most disaffected in the Nation and the most desirous of it and because I am sure you are well affected to the Church of England I would desire to know what security you could propose to her in restoring the late King when you see what regardless trifles Oaths and Promises are when Popery is in the other Scale the King's Conscience is managed by a hot-brain'd Jesuit when you see how insignificant all limitations by Laws is when claim is laid to a Dispensing Power you cannot suppose he 'll grant himself to be stript of his Power and without that you can have no security can you think he will discard his old Friends who have stuck so close to him and for whose sakes he freely quitted his Kingdoms and if he does not what a pretty posture will you be in besides by what branch of your Oath are you empowered to make conditions with your King What assurance can you have that he will esteem your services if you do not go through stitch with him since you have many and fresh examples of those whose being only Protestants was enough to cancel all the obligations they could lay claim to and all the pleas of merit for their former services What if he did make guilded offers of Favour and Protection that is but natural for all men in Affliction to make to those by whom they expect to be relieved but the Point once gained they are seldom ever thought of but it is so far from this that the late King and his Adherents stick not to declare That if he regains his Kingdoms the whole Design of Popery and Arbitrary Government shall return upon us with more Fury than ever besides he dares trust none nor will he thank any if he rise to his Throne but his Catholick Subjects as he calls them Can you heartily fight for that Cause which if you are true Protestants you dare not wish success to I doubt not but the most of you look upon the pretended Prince of Wales to be a Sham and an Impostor and will you draw your Swords against the Lawful Heiress and Successor which is included too in the Oath of Allegiance for one whom you have all the Presumptions imaginable to believe is supposititions can you assist him in that Ba●barous Act of depriving his own Children of the Hereditary Rights of Succession only because they were of your own Perswasion and ruine the Church of England and the happy Constitution of our English Government I am sure whatever severities our Religion requires you to suffer from Popery when in possession it does not oblige you to contribute to the bringing of it in Will you then voluntarily run into Confusion and put your Necks into the Yoke of Tyranny meerly for the sake of one who has done his utmost Endeavours to ruine and enslave us Do you think your selves obliged to enable him to crantch and tear in pieces as many as he pleases and execute all the direful Effects of his enraged Fury for he cannot return without destroying at least ten parts of his People and when that is done his Kingdom and Himself would be but a PREY to a more powerful Neighbour Sure we are no ways commanded to put Swords into Mad-mens hands as oft as we find them disarmed or enjoyned to hang our selves for the diversion and sport of Fools and Knaves and sure we must not choose Misery when we have the greatest Appearances possible that GOD by his Providence works effectually and miraculously for our Delivery In a word do not sacrifice your greatest Interests to an empty Formality do not desire the Storm to return heavier upon us do not court Slavery and Servitude and fall in Love with Fetters be not so misled with the narrow Notions of an unbounded Loyalty as to oppose and dislike our present Happy Settlement And now I address my self to the other Party who though they may not contribute to bring in the late King with their Swords will by their Divisions if not abated It was the Civil Discords of our Ancestors which brought our King and Country under the Subjection of the Roman Emperor and I am sure your violent Heats about Religion if continued will at last bring our Church under the Vassalage of the Roman Bishop It is now unseasonable for little Scruples to weigh so far with you as to break the Peace of the Church about them and endanger our whole Religion and that we should now be taking one another by the Throats for an hundred pence when our Common Adversary stands ready to clap on us an Action of a thousand Talents would you be content that rather than the Surplice should not be turned out Popery should again come in would you exchange our Liturgy for the Mass-Book and rather than receive the Sacrament kneeling swallow Transubstantiation Will you still continue to take Advice from those you know wish us no good and will you be their Instruments to do their Work for them whom you pretend the most you hate You may make as loud Pretensions as you will of your Hatred to Popery but while you continue these Fends and Animosities you only make a broad Gap for it to enter and so to make us once again Slaves and Miserable LONDON Printed and are to be Sold by Randal Taylor near Stationers-Hall 1689.